As Freedom Fibre work to connect homes and businesses across the North West to their lightning-fast, full-fibre network, the town of Leigh continues to benefit from the ongoing investment into the digital infrastructure of the area.

Having already built the network to approximately 21,000 homes and businesses in the town, it’s expected that the build will be completed in summer of 2023 and will allow residents to access broadband speeds of up to 900MB/s through their partnership with National Internet Provider, TalkTalk.

With the increase homeworking and the number of services being moved online – including essential resources such as health appointments, banking, and education – making the switch to full-fibre broadband has never been more important.

Leigh Journal:

Freedom Fibre’s full-fibre network supports the government’s work towards establishing gigabit-capable broadband nation-wide by 2030, and ensures residents of Leigh can stay connected following the subsequent switch off of the copper services.

Currently, fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) networks still utilise copper which deteriorates over distance, creating a slow and unstable connection. In comparison, Freedom Fibre’s network uses end to end fibre to the premises (FTTP) which is resistant to external interference and does not deteriorate.

Additionally, full-fibre broadband has been shown to be up to 10 times faster than the average UK connection* and five times more reliable than any previous network**, allowing users to connect multiple devices at the same time without compromising on speed and quality.

On the ongoing build in Leigh, Freedom Fibre’s customer operations director, Marie Danby, said: “Our rollout in Leigh marks an exciting step forward in our mission to deliver a future proof full-fibre network to the residents and businesses across this area.

"This network will provide significant benefits for the current and future generations of Leigh, and we continue with our mission to support these local communities and build a network that is accessible to everyone.

"Freedom Fibre would like to thank the Leigh community, our build partners and the Leigh & Wigan council for their continued support and we look forward to completing the final areas of our network rollout this summer.”

Residents and businesses who would like to connect† can head to the Freedom Fibre website www.freedomfibre.com/connect to register their interest.

For tenants and those living in multi-dwelling units, a wayleave agreement will be required from the landlord/property freeholder that enables Freedom Fibre to install, upgrade, repair, maintain or replace their telecommunications equipment in the property

More information on the wayleaves process can be found on the Freedom Fibre website.

*Based on data from Ofcom report ‘UK home broadband performance, measurement period November 2020’

**Based on data from Ofcom ‘Building a full-fibre future’ report 2018

†Network availability may vary in some areas.